Remember The Big Yoga Pant Controversy From 2015? IT’S BACK, You Guys. It’s FREAKING BACK.

If you’ve been a COTR follower for awhile, you probably remember YogaPantGate.  It was a THING.  It all started with this post from Daisy. That post got a FLURRY of attention, and resulted in this follow up post.

And today?  Today, I just read a Letter To The Editor of the Notre Dame Observer, from a woman named Maryann White, which has gone viral, because Maryann is a Catholic mom of four sons who wants women on the Notre Dame campus to stop wearing leggings.

I’m not making this up.

Here’s a few excerpts:

I’m not trying to insult anyone or infringe upon anyone’s rights. I’m just a Catholic mother of four sons with a problem that only girls can solve: leggings.

The emergence of leggings as pants some years ago baffled me. They’re such an unforgiving garment. Last fall, they obtruded painfully on my landscape. I was at Mass at the Basilica with my family. In front of us was a group of young women, all wearing very snug-fitting leggings and all wearing short-waisted tops (so that the lower body was uncovered except for the leggings). Some of them truly looked as though the leggings had been painted on them.

A world in which women continue to be depicted as “babes” by movies, video games, music videos, etc. makes it hard on Catholic mothers to teach their sons that women are someone’s daughters and sisters. That women should be viewed first as people — and all people should be considered with respect.

Wait.  Leggings make it hard for Maryann to teach her sons that women are daughters and sisters?  That they’re Actual People?  Whizzah whuzzah?

So, leggings are a total wardrobe staple for me, I’ll admit.  I happen to be a person who chooses to wear long stuff over them, because I don’t wanna have my assular area hanging out for public consumption. That’s just me.  But plenty of girls wear them with short tops and that’s their prerogative.  Just like it’s my prerogative to wear shorts (and y’all know the outrage I’ve dealt with over that.)

I cannot believe we’re still in a place that we’re policing this kind of crap.

Humans judge other humans.  I get it.  It’s in our nature.  And there are things that some women wear that will make me think, “That chick is a total skank.” Chances are, if I think a chick looks skanky, other people might too.  But so what?  It doesn’t give me or anyone else the right to act inappropriately toward that chick.  That same chick might think I look like a skank in my shorts.  I DON’T GIVE A CRAP what she thinks about me, and neither should she give a crap what I think about her.

Which brings me back to Maryann.  Here’s more of her letter:

I was ashamed for the young women at Mass. I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds. My sons know better than to ogle a woman’s body — certainly when I’m around (and hopefully, also when I’m not). They didn’t stare, and they didn’t comment afterwards. But you couldn’t help but see those blackly naked rear ends. I didn’t want to see them — but they were unavoidable. How much more difficult for young guys to ignore them.

I’ve heard women say that they like leggings because they’re “comfortable.” So are pajamas. So is nakedness. And the human body is a beautiful thing. But we don’t go around naked because we respect ourselves — we want to be seen as a person, not a body (like slave-girl Leia). We don’t go naked because we respect the other people who must see us, whether they would or not. These are not just my sons — they’re the fathers and brothers of your friends, the male students in your classes, the men of every variety who visit campus. I’m fretting both because of unsavory guys who are looking at you creepily and nice guys who are doing everything to avoid looking at you. For the Catholic mothers who want to find a blanket to lovingly cover your nakedness and protect you — and to find scarves to tie over the eyes of their sons to protect them from you!

Holy crap.

Maryann – you don’t need to worry about covering other people’s nakedness and I feel like 99% confident that your sons have seen worse than girls on campus in leggings.  We have GOT TO STOP this nonsense where we pre-emptively accuse all men of not being able to control themselves in the face of FREAKING YOGA PANTS OR LEGGINGS.

My husband and I are going on a beach vacation soon.  We’ve been on beach vacations before.  We’re literally surrounded by women in bikinis, and you know what happens? it’s absolutely amazing, but what happens is that men (including my husband) look at those women, and women (myself included) look at men in their swim trunks, and in some cases we admire one another, and then we all freaking MOVE ON WITH OUR LIVES.  No harm done.

Maryann concluded:

Leggings are so naked, so form fitting, so exposing. Could you think of the mothers of sons the next time you go shopping and consider choosing jeans instead? Let Notre Dame girls be the first to turn their backs(ides) on leggings. You have every right to wear them. But you have every right to choose not to. Thanks for listening to the lecture. Catholic moms are good at those!

I kinda want to believe that the whole letter is just a big joke and that it’s meant to simply rehash this entire argument again, but I’m afraid Maryann is serious.  And I feel like someone needs to tell her that her sons have probably already had sex.

I’m not here trying to act like I don’t judge people based on what they wear.  We all do it.  When I see Kim Kardashian in CLOTHING, I am legit shocked that any part of her is covered.  That entire family is skank central, and you won’t convince me otherwise. They want to be viewed sexually like 24/7, and that’s how they dress, and so that’s how they’re viewed.  All of us send out a specific vibe or message with the clothing we choose.  AND THAT IS OK.  It’s entirely our choice.  And it’s entirely the choice of others to view our choices however THEY choose.  Some of you think I’m a skank because of my shorts.  I don’t give a crap.  Think it all you want.  As long as you don’t touch me, we’re all good.

What we should all agree on is that no one, no matter what they are wearing, deserves to be mistreated or touched in a way that they haven’t consented to, simply because of what they’ve chosen to wear.  THAT is what Maryann should be teaching her four sons.  Because I can tell her right now that leggings and yoga pants are here to stay.

/end rant.